LONDON， Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mayor Sadiq Khan has called on four of the big-name football clubs in the British capital to pay their staff the London Living Wage.
While Arsenal， Tottenham Hotspur West Ham and Crystal Palace pay their top players tens of thousands of dollars a week， the clubs have yet to sign up to a voluntary deal to guarantee a pay rate of 9.75 pounds (12 U.S.dollars) an hour to their lowest paid workers. It would give workers just 390 pounds (481 dollars) for an average 40-hour week.
The Daily Mail newspaper lists Arsenal's Mesut Ozil as the top paid player in London， earning a weekly salary of 190，000 pounds (234，000 dollars).
It would take somebody on the London Living Wage 11 years to earn what Ozil picks up in one week.
Only Premier league leaders Chelsea have signed up to the London Living Wage， said Khan.
He has written to the owners of the four clubs urging them to help make London a living wage city.
The number of businesses in London who now pay the higher rate as a minimum salary has increase in the past year by 25 percent to more than 1，000.
"My vision is to make London a Living Wage City and that is why I am calling on our great city's Premier League clubs to join me in making that a reality. The likes of Arsenal， Spurs， West Ham and Crystal Palace are not only top football clubs， but leading employers in London. I'm calling on them to sign up and pay their staff the increased rate. It's a 'win-win' situation: they can improve staff recruitment， retention and productivity， while helping me promote the London Living Wage across the city."
The national government's compulsory national living wage， lower than the London Living Wage， will be set at 7.50 an hour (9.25 dollars) from this coming April， with a target to set it at 9 pounds an hour (11 dollars) by 2020.
As Britain celebrated International Women?s Day http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/ - Cheap Patriots Shirts , the government encouraged blue chip firms to invite more women into their boardrooms.
Chant?l du Plooy takes a look at where the UK currently stands on the issue of gender equality and what it will take for our country to finally get the balance right.
?Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All?
This year?s International Women?s Day marked its 99th anniversary with the slogan ?Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All?.
When Women?s Day was first held nearly a century ago, its purpose was to help women around the world with the fight against female discrimination http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/ - Cheap Patriots Jerseys , voting rights and better pay. Today, it is mostly dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and successes of women.
On the eve of this year?s annual celebration, Kathryn Bigelow, appropriately became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar for her internationally acclaimed film The Hurt Locker.
If it took women 82 years of filmmaking to succeed in that category http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/ryan-allen/ - Cheap Ryan Allen Jersey , however, how long will it take them to get onto the executive payroll?
Although Britain has come a long way in diversifying our companies, we are definitely not on standard yet. A recent study by the Government Equalities Office unveiled that 60 of the public feel that there aren?t enough female directors in big companies.
Rightly so, because according to the Cabinet Office http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/marcus-cannon/ - Cheap Marcus Cannon Jersey , merely 10 of directors at our top 100 companies are women and 62 of FTSE 250 firms don?t have any female executives at all. At this rate, experts believe gender equality in boardrooms will only be evident by 2070.
?More serious action? is Bequired
On International Women?s Day, Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his concern about the lack of gender equality in British companies.
?We all recognise the value of strong role models for women in all walks of life ? and there are many in politics, the arts http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/patrick-chung/ - Cheap Patrick Chung Jersey , public services, sport and the third sector, but there are too few in Britain s boardrooms.?
He added that this was especially worrying considering the fact that more than half of graduates every year are female.
As a result, the government?s new Equality Bill will compel companies to reveal their strategies for hiring female talent; and a new parliamentary proposal http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/alan-branch/ - Cheap Alan Branch Jersey , Women for Boards, will promote the issue.
However, if firms don?t comply, the Prime Minister said that the government will be forced to take ?more serious action to ensure companies recruit from the diverse pool of exceptional talent we have in the UK?.
The Benefits of Greater Equality
Ruth Spellman http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/david-andrews/ - Cheap David Andrews Jersey , chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, told Business Times Online that one of the reasons companies failed during the recent global financial crisis was because they weren?t diverse enough.
?If you can build a diverse workforce that you keep intact, you will do better in tough times.?
Silka Patel, an executive assistant at Cisco http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/chris-hogan/ - Cheap Chris Hogan Jersey , added that a diverse team brings varied ideas.
?If we employ the same person again and again, we will never grow the company.?
A country that sets the standard for gender equality in businesses and the social arena is Norway. After Gro Harlem Brundtland became the first woman prime minister in 1981, the country started implementing female quotas of 40 within the public and private sectors.
Norway?s first male Minister of Children and Equality, Audun Lysbakken http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/shaq-mason/ - Cheap Shaq Mason Jersey , recently told Forbes that gender equality is a business necessity, because when institutions exclude half of the available talent, their performance is more likely to suffer.
?By making gender equality mandatory through regulations and welfare reforms, we ve made it easier for women to work and have a family http://www.cheapnfljerseyspatriots.com/kyle-van-noy/ - Cheap Kyle Van Noy Jersey ,? he added.
The Road Ahead
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